"People tell us our music has helped them through hard times. It's not something that we intend on when we write songs, and when Jacoby [Shaddix] writes the lyrics... but it makes us feel good that what we're doing is helping people and not just entertaining people."

Today, the boys are together again - about to embark on a co-headlining tour with Papa Roach and opening band Kill Hannah - but frontman Nic Cester is still echoing his brother's sentiments: "[The relationship] is perpetually challenging," he tells us from a tour stop in Sauget, IL, Wednesday.

"There is so much ego involved, which is ridiculous, but it's the truth," Cester says. "[My brother and I] have learned in order for this to work... If we've got a day off, let's not hang out together."

But Cester is looking forward to hanging out with forthcoming tourmates Papa Roach, although he's not too familiar with their music.

"To be honest, I've not heard a single Papa Roach song," Cester says frankly. "But we're trying to be open-minded and roll the dice. We've played so many shows... One of the first shows we did was supporting the Rolling Stones in front of 80,000 people... We've always had the ability to cross over quite comfortably."

"I don't want to be on tour with a bunch of assholes," Cester adds. "If I'm gonna be on tour with a band, I want to be able to have a beer with them and enjoy it."

Thursday, October 22, 2009

We always have a fun time when we hang with Project Runway season five finalist Kenley Collins.

Collins is elegant, talented and fiercely honest - and we got to see a glimpse of all three during her a showing of her Spring '10 collection (inspired by Amelia Earhart) at Wednesday night's Forte/Seam Collective runway show at the Metropolitan Pavilion.

Designers Marissa Erskine (top photo, left), Elizabeth Rynish (center-right) and Sheila Frank (right) also presented their collections, all in the name of a great cause: Gilda's Club NYC, which provides support to cancer patients and their families.

The night was also something of a Project Runway season five reunion, as designers Daniel Feld and Stella Zotis (bottom photo)came out to support their castmate!

Poison Ivy ran into Collins pre-show (in the bathroom of all places), and asked about her long-term plans.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

She sings. She dances. She occasionally picks up a guitar and strums along.

She's also a fiercely beautiful blonde who goes through about 19 costume changes per show.

We learned about all of this during our first Paulina Rubio concert Tuesday night at Nokia Theatre in New York City. We also learned a ton of Spanish, as 99% of Rubio's music and stage banter were en Español.

"Esta cancion para todos los chicas!" Rubio told the crowd. ("This song is for all the girls!")

Rubio then dived into "Yo No Soy Esa Mujer" ("I Am Not That Woman") off of 2001's self-titled Paulina.

Poison Ivy met three Mexican-American girls at the show who told us they've been Rubio fans since La Chica Dorada came out in '92.

"We've been listening since we were living in Mexico at age seven," they said. "But this is our first show."

And what a show it was!!

Check out a sampling of Rubio performing her 2002 American crossover hit, "Don't Say Goodbye," below.

"Yes it's true," Lambert Tweeted. "I spent yesterday in the studio w the insanely talented and creative Lady GaGa recording a song that she wrote! I love her... Gaga wrote the song a while ago and she thought it would be a good fit for me. It's a solo track. I feel so honored and lucky to be asked... GaGa just gets it, ya know?